5.75 ez this morning and hopefully another 4 or so tonight. Last big mileage week for me before Boston. Hope to get about 85 but will depend on work schedule. Have a 22 miler planned for Saturday and all my training partners are involved in a 200 mile relay so I'm going to have to do it on my own.

Hey Ribs. Don't think I'm tapering. This week schedule calls for 85 miles with long run of 22. Next two weeks are 76 miles with an 18 and 20 respectively. Then 66 miles with a 17 miler and then a 49 mile week and then a 30 mile week plus marathon. Last week was a cutback week of 73 miles and two previous weeks were 86 and 87 miles.

Included in the above mileage are mid week long runs 12-14 miles on hills. And at least one "speed" type workout per week. Ribs, Fred, and others; I welcome your feedback as I'm going everything possible to go under 3 at Boston. Don't tell me just run Boston and enjoy it. I can do both

Paul, congratulations on your 10 mile race the other day (your last post on the February thread). Sounds like that was a good run.

I agree with everyone about the gels, and am glad you posted about that, Spareribs. I've always only had water on runs and then I usually plan my run so I stop at a water source if I'm running long and it's warm. I don't carry a bottle with me. If you drink up before you run, that's usually just fine. Runners don't need the extra sugar and calories in the gels when your body supplies what you need. It seems to be a new fad, much like the energy drinks you see. Just extra calories--they're like drinking shots of sugared caffeine ("energy" drinks), that's all.

We camped in a very isolated spot in the desert--there were no people around for several miles at least. We were on public lands near the edge of China Lake Naval Weapons Station at a tiny dry lake at the terminus of a rarely-used and difficult at times to follow track and could see the radio towers on two hillsides several miles away in opposite directions. Still, it felt like the ends of the earth, which was fine by me.

I would have liked to have found good herbs in that area for that pasta, Paul, but there was mostly scrubby creosote, and quite a few flowers in bloom. We had a our dog along and we took him for a four mile or so walk on Saturday and looked for signs of historic Native American presence in the area (my husband is an amateur-expert in archeology). Since I had 32 miles by Thursday, and was tired, I felt the need to rest. Sunday was also a three mile walk in the desert with our dog. The roads were too rough for running and I spent a lot of time in a chair reading or looking at clouds. This week is a reduced mileage week for me--only the third one I've taken in three months. I think I need it. Unfortunately, I'm traveling Sunday, so it will be a fairly low mileage next week too. Today was three miles on the dirt track, slow.

I seem to race better if I train thru my races rather than a full taper. I will cut my miles back a bit towards the end in hopes of sharpening a little. Today 10.5 miles avg pace 7:30. All between 7:50 to 7:17

"Know the course. That’s the first step toward a successful run in Boston.
While
Bill Rodgers eventually moved to Boston and trained on the Newton hills
four or more times per week, he hadn’t begun doing so in 1973, when he
was confident in his ability but naive to the demands of the course. A
naturally aggressive downhill runner, Rodgers pushed too hard in the
early going and paid the price.
Though Heartbreak steals most
of the headlines, you only need to fear it if you’ve mismanaged the
preceding miles. Heartbreak didn’t knock Rodgers out in 1973; it merely
dealt the final blow following several rounds of steady pounding from
the early downhills and the heat. “If runners can run a real moderate
first half, they will loooove that last half,” Rodgers says today. “The
hills are not tough hills unless you play with fire and let the first
half of the course seduce you.”
Though it doesn’t have a catchy
name like its colleague in the 20th mile, the hill that you’ll be
standing on at the start is actually the largest you’ll face. For the
first kilometer, you’ll descend at a rate of between five and eight
percent. “Everything is just geared toward having you run this race
fast, fast, fast,” says Dr. David Martin, co-author of <span style="font-style: italic">Better Training for Distance Runners</span>.
But be warned: “The seconds per mile that you run too fast at the
beginning turn out to be minutes per mile as you run too slow at the
end.”